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Space Design for Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency in Summer: Passive cooling strategies for hot humid climates, inspired by Chinese vernacular architecture
Get PDFPassive cooling for thermal comfort in summer is a big issue in low-energy building design. An important reason is global warming because global warming increases the number of cooling degree days. In addition, the energy demand of buildings has increased rapidly due to both the improvement of living standards and the globalisation of modern architecture. And finally, cooling a building is especially a challenge in countries where few resources are available. Passive cooling techniques, where solar and heating control systems are applied, largely depend on the design of the urban morphology and the building shape. The first research question is therefore: What is the relationship between spatial configuration, thermal environment and thermal summer comfort of occupants and how to apply spatial configuration as the passive cooling strategy in architectural design?
Space is the empty part of a building, but its volume is important for the activities of occupants. Architects define the general spatial structure of a building mainly in the early design stages. There they define the spatial properties of a building, i.e. how the spaces are connected and what are the boundary conditions between the spaces. The final research question of this research therefore is: What is the relationship between spatial configuration, thermal environment and thermal summer comfort and how to apply spatial configuration as passive cooling strategy in architectural design in the early stages?
In order to answer this research question, this dissertation is divided into two main parts.
Part I is the theoretical research phase. The goal is to clarify the relationship between spatial configuration of buildings, the thermal environment and thermal comfort of occupants in summer. In this part, a literature review of the fundamental theoretical background knowledge of thermal comfort and passive cooling technology is summarised. As the author got his inspiration from Chinese vernacular architecture, the second step was conducting surveys and performing analyses of the spatial design, thermal environment and thermal summer comfort in Chinese vernacular buildings. Contemporary residential buildings were also investigated. A challenge was to find examples of contemporary buildings with appropriate spatial designs and thermal comfort as well as contemporary buildings with less successful spatial designs and thermal comfort. The third step was to find correlations between the occupants’ spatial and thermal perception through questionnaires. Questionnaires were held among Chinese as well as Dutch architecture students.
The main research outcome of part I is the definition of “building microclimate”. Building microclimate is defined as “a type of microclimate which involves indoor spaces and spaces surrounding the indoor spaces in a particular building”. It is not just the microclimate around the building; it also includes the indoor climate. A suitable building microclimate is important for the occupants’ thermal comfort in summer. Another research outcome of part I is the revelation of the relationship between spatial perception and adaptive thermal comfort. Combining the relationship between spatial perception and adaptive thermal comfort with the new definition of building microclimate leads to the conclusion that the spatial configuration of a building plays an important role in creating a particular building microclimate.
Part II is a practical research phase. The goal is to explore the possibility of using a spatial design method as a passive cooling strategy for thermal summer comfort and to demonstrate how to apply this method in the early design stages.
As a first step, the potential of using a space analysis method for passive cooling and thermal comfort was investigated. A convex spatial analysis method was developed from the traditional space syntax method to analyse the natural ventilation potential. Both the logical relationship between the spaces and the boundary conditions between the spaces can influence the accessibility of a particular spatial configuration, and thus influence the potential for natural ventilation. The convex space analysis method is chosen for the preliminary analysis to show the logical relationships between spaces. It cannot completely predict natural ventilation, but it is a graphical method that is easy to use. Architects conceive design solutions generally through graphic methods, making the convex space analysis a good design tool. The extended visibility graph analysis (VGA) method is the best choice for the natural ventilation potential analysis for a spatial configuration. The isovist measure can be used for the natural ventilation potential of a single space.
Two case studies were performed to demonstrate the proposed method for architectural design in the early design stages. The main finding of part II is the potential of using spatial indicators to predict the airflow performance of buildings. New applications of the developed space syntax methods are proposed to help architects in designing a contemporary building that is thermally more comfortable and that has a lower energy demand for cooling.
This research is performed at the cross disciplines of architectural spatial design, passive cooling and thermal comfort. This research proposes several ideas for the first time. The term “building microclimate’ is one. The application of a spatial design parameter for thermal comfort is another. This research can contribute to the sustainable development of buildings, Chinese ones in particular. It can help design residential buildings for occupants with low and medium incomes by decreasing the necessity of air conditioning and improving the living environment for thermal comfort as well. This research is also valuable for passive or zero-energy design of houses in the Netherlands and the Mediterranean area. This research will enrich the green building science by introducing enhanced space syntax methods for adaptive thermal comfort and for passive cooling by means of spatial design.
This thesis is mainly composed of a collection of the author’s published papers
Investeringen van corporaties in stedelijke vernieuwing
Get PDFDit hoofdstuk geeft de context weer van woningcorporaties in relatie tot de woningmarkt, stedelijke vernieuwing en gebiedsontwikkeling. Paragraaf 2.1 beschrijft de woningmarkt in Nederland. Paragraaf 2.2 gaat in op de rol van woningcorporaties en in paragraaf 2.3 komt de Woningwet aan bod. In paragraaf 2.4 wordt het begrip stedelijke vernieuwing gedefinieerd en worden de ontwikkelingen in stedelijke vernieuwing en beleid beschreven vanaf het naoorlogse wijkenbeleid tot aan de huidige wijkvernieuwing. Paragraaf 2.5 gaat in op investeringsstrategieën van woningcorporaties in stedelijke vernieuwing, waarna in paragraaf 2.6 de relatie wordt gelegd met stedelijke gebiedsontwikkeling. Aan de hand daarvan wordt afgebakend waar dit onderzoek zich op richt. Tot slot geeft paragraaf 2.7 een korte samenvatting en conclusies
Samenspel corporatie en belegger
Get PDFIn dit hoofdstuk wordt ingegaan op de samenwerking tussen woningcorporaties en beleggers waarbij middeldure huur, ofwel middenhuur, centraal staat. Er wordt antwoord gegeven op de volgende onderzoeksvraag: “Op welke andere samenwerkingswijze kunnen woningcorporaties, institutionele beleggers en gemeenten elkaar stimuleren om te investeren in nieuwe huurwoningen in het middensegment, teneinde daarmee bij te dragen aan gemengde wijken in stedelijke vernieuwing en een meer evenwichtige woningmarkt?” Met huurwoningen in het middensegment, ofwel middenhuur, wordt in dit onderzoek bedoeld middeldure huurwoningen met een maandhuur vanaf de tweede aftoppingsgrens. Deze grens geldt voor huishoudens van drie of meer personen en wordt jaarlijks verhoogd. De tweede aftoppingsgrens lag in 2016 op circa € 630 en is de afgelopen jaren opgetrokken naar circa € 650 (prijspeil 2019). De minimum- en maximumgrenzen van middenhuur verschillen regionaal. In het algemeen wordt € 1.000 als maximumgrens gehanteerd (VNG, 2017).
Om inzicht te krijgen in deze vraag worden de volgende deelvragen onderscheiden.
Onder welke voorwaarden zijn institutionele beleggers bereid om te investeren in het middensegment vanaf de tweede aftoppingsgrens?
Hoe is het voor woningcorporaties acceptabel te maken om zich terug te trekken tot aan de tweede aftoppingsgrens voor drie- en meerpersoonshuishoudens?
Draagt samenwerking tussen institutionele beleggers en corporaties bij aan meer investeringen in het middensegment in stedelijke vernieuwingswijken?
Op welke wijze kan de gemeente hieraan bijdragen?
In relatie tot deze deelvragen zijn vijf veronderstellingen geformuleerd op basis van literatuuronderzoek en interviews. Deze worden diepgaand onderzocht aan de hand van een gamesimulatie. De interviews en gamesimulatie hebben plaatsgevonden in de eerste helft van 2016. Op basis van de bevindingen van de gamesimulatie en de interviews wordt de onderzoeksvraag van dit hoofdstuk beantwoord en worden conclusies getrokken.
In de volgende paragraaf wordt allereerst de achtergrond en het speelveld in beeld gebracht, waarna in paragraaf 5.3 de interviews worden behandeld. In paragraaf 5.4 en 5.5 komen de opzet en resultaten van de gamesimulatie aan bod. In paragraaf 5.6 worden tot slot conclusies getrokken.
Dit hoofdstuk is tot stand gekomen in samenwerking met Inge Oortgiesen in het kader van haar masterthesis Huisvesting voor middeninkomens (Oortgiesen, 2016) waaruit enkele passages en tabellen zijn overgenomen of bewerkt
Good Life Now: Leisure and Labour in Cedric Price’s Housing Research, 1966–1973
Get PDFCedric Price’s architecture approaches time and space atypically, focusing primarily on the needs and desires of the user. His ‘short-life’ housing system, designed in 1970–1972 in response to a national crisis of housing provision, takes consumer choice as the organising principle of its design. Its formal flexibility blurs the separation between the house and workplace, while its customisability and disposability reduces the family home to an expendable commodity. The short-life house accommodates a lifestyle of precarity characteristic of neoliberal society, aligning with neoliberal discourses on society emergent in Britain at the beginning of the 1970s
In Praise of Cybernetics: Office Landscaping and the (Self-)Conditioning of Workers
Get PDFIn the late 1950s the Quickborner Team developed a cybernetics-inspired design methodology for organisations, focusing on information flow, with the aim to fully automate administrative labour and to make the organisation constantly adaptable to unpredictable future challenges. Participant analysis allowed them to quantify communication in an organisation and with that envision a new kind of office space. The so-called Bürolandschaft (office landscape), seemingly-endless, chaotic looking interiors, would allow for efficient information flow. One significant aspect of Bürolandschaft design is the non-hierarchic organisation of workers in teams that were bound to quantified decision-making processes, yet addressed as experts, scientists and creatives, ultimately conditioning them to participate voluntarily in reaching the organisation’s goal without questioning 
The Role of Residential Buyouts in Post-Disaster Housing Recovery Support: A Comparison of Recent Cases from Japan and the United States
Get PDFAfter recent disasters in Japan and the United States, government acquisition of residential land has played a larger and increasing role within and in relation to housing recovery support programs. With different historical, legal, and governance contexts, residential buyouts are shaped by the respective policies of each country. Framed by earlier precedents, this paper explains the development and implementation of residential buyout programs used after recent disasters: the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in Japan and 2012 Superstorm Sandy in New York City and New York State in the United States. Through a comparison of roles of buyout in relationship to other aspects of postdisaster housing reconstruction and recovery support, some similarities are identified in the challenges of implementation, as well as uniquely different issues faced by the affected communities and households in each case
Whatever happened to biological thinking in urban planning?
Get PDFSince 2007 the proclamation of the ‘urban age’ by the UN has been heralded as a critical moment in human society and history. The ‘urban’ has taken its place alongside the anthropocene as a new era for humanity. Its importance as a transformational moment has been underscored by scientific interest in cities. Anxiety about urbanisation was a motivator for early town planning activity in the 19th century. The tools developed by different disciplines to solve the crisis of 19th century urban development were designed around human welfare needs. With our cities forming both the origin and the solution to our planetary environmental crisis, a broader set of planning thoughts, languages and metaphors are needed that go beyond the mere human. Thinking biologically about Homo Sapiens in cities will be critical to our survival.
Planning history has a role to play in this project, drawing on the past to identify a biological lineage in urban planning and reveal what has and has not been successful. The aim of this paper is to start that identification. It forms part of a larger project to trace a lineage of biological thinking in urban planning history during the twentieth century. The paper analyses and reinterprets the use of science and biology by two influential planning visionaries: Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and Le Corbusier (CharlesÉdouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965). Among the luminaries of his age, Geddes as a biologist turned sociologist was a unique figure. He attempted to grapple with the early 20th century urban age in biological terms. Le Corbusier, also used science and biology to argue for universal rules to guide urbanism and as an aesthetic. The paper describes the biological work of these canonical planning thinkers to consider why humanism became the hegemonic frame for urban planning in the twentieth century
The application of city planning theory to industrial development in Japan: Another introduction process of garden city and neighborhood theory
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is clearfy the roots of garden city theory and ueighborhood theory in Japanese company town, case study on Kurabo and Hitachi company housing plan. This paper is analyzing how housing measures devised by companies through the application of advanced city development theory should be positioned. In conclusion, the historical positions of the two cases discussed in this paper in the overview of city planning history have been charted in this paper. The Kurashiki case indicates that Magosaburo Ohara developed a garden city theory from the concept of a company town like a workers’ village expanded to a city as a whole. On the other hand, Yoshikazu Uchida, who introduced neighborhood theory to Katsuta. Although the two cases discussed in the paper were not authorized as official city plans, they are well established in the Japanese history of city planning as examples that involve garden city theory and neighborhood theory
Active inference for Robot control: A Factor Graph Approach
Get PDFActive Inference provides a framework for perception,action and learning, where the optimization is done byminimizing the Free-Energy of a system. This paperexplores whether active inference can be used for closedloopcontrol of a 1 degree of freedom robot arm. This isdone by implementing variational message passing onForney-style factor graphs; a probabilistic programmingframework. We show that an active inference controllerwith variational message passing can perform stateestimation and control at the same time
The Weakest Link: Degradation of a weld through interaction with hydrogen
Get PDFThis work evaluates the effect of hydrogen on welds in martensitic steels. In-situ constant-load tensile testing of a weld of HB450 steel shows that hydrogen-induced cracks appear in the filler material, which is capable of trapping the highest amount of hydrogen, as indicated by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Further crack propagation takes place in the part of the heat affected zone (HAZ) with the highest hardness
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